Prologue

She lays down on her bedroom floor. It feels like she’s broken somewhere in her brain. The chemicals that control her love don’t seem to be working anymore. She’s tried her best to mend what she didn’t break, but it hurts her chest.

She’s drowning in her tears, drowning in lost love, and she’s suffocating. Claire is right, she’s done this to herself, but how can she give up on someone that used to easily make her heart melt? How can she step away from twelve years of both the best and the worst times of her life? How can she take away her daughter’s father?

And now she’s sobbing with her knees held to her chest and her hand covering her mouth because she’s made it to the cliff and she wants to jump to alleviate the pain. Ember is down the hall, sleeping soundly in her bed and Mary hopes that she doesn’t wake and join her instead.

There’s a bottle of red wine and a bottle of antidepressants beside her. Her hands tremble and her body shakes. She’s terrified of her thoughts, terrified that she’ll do something wrong and do more harm than good, terrified that she’ll harm the man that’s done everything wrong.

Everyone is asleep and she’s in the middle of the floor, wondering if it’s worth it anymore. Her sun has gone and gotten lost behind the clouds, and her star isn’t bright anymore because she knows that the moon isn’t as high as it used to be.

She wonders if she deserves this. If, maybe, she’s done something wrong. Maybe she didn’t give him enough attention. Maybe she didn’t tell him that she loved him as much as she should have. Maybe she just wasn’t enough even though he was always enough for her.

It hurt to breathe whenever he was around and if she didn’t get out soon she would asphyxiate and her little star would quickly fade into the night in her wake.

The phone vibrates on the dresser. She’s afraid to read the note on her screen because she knows its him. It’s always him this late at night and she knows that he isn’t coming home. He’s with her and he’s giving away the love that’s supposed to be meant for her.

Her fingers tremble as she pulls them from over her mouth and gently pulls the charger toward herself. The phone tumbles from the table and hits the carpeted floor with a dull thud. Mary wipes her eyes and holds her breath as she retrieves the device and unlocks the screen. She knows what’s coming, but she can’t help the fact that her heart is still attached to its source of misery.

Alec: Won’t be home tonight, something’s come up at work.

She doesn’t know why he bothers to lie to her anymore, doesn’t understand it really. Maybe some part of him still cares for her and he wants to tape her heart together instead of shattering it completely. Or maybe he just doesn’t want to feel guilty and, if he tells her lies that he can make himself believe are true, he won’t feel even half of what she’s going through.

Her fingers hover over the keypad, desperate to say something but not knowing at all what to say. There are so many things that she wants to say to him, so many things that she’d already said aloud and that she’d talked herself into saying to make sure he knew how much he’d hurt her, how much he was still hurting her. But it was pointless. He doesn’t want to listen and he hardly even cares. She’s just wasting her breath like he’s wasting her time.

Mary exits the screen and is brought back to her text screen. She stops there and stares at Elliot’s contact until her eyes start to blur again. He told her to call him if she ever needed anything or wanted to talk, but she’d never taken up that offer. It had been months since he walked right into her life and, even though they’d spent a lot of time together, she doesn’t know if it’s alright to bother him with her broken marriage and her shattered heart.

Her heart knows what it wants though and it has her fingers clicking his contact and pressing call before she can change her mind.

The line rings four times. Elliot is sound asleep and it takes him a moment to wake up enough to answer his phone. The bright light burns his eyes, but the name on the screen sooths his lonely heart. Mary has never called him before and he knows that it’s because she thinks that she talks too much and because she doesn’t want to talk about her relationship with her husband around him.

He’s glad that she’s called, but he’s worried because it means that something is wrong. His heart sinks the moment he answers the phone and places it to his ear. She’s sniffling and trying to stifle her sobs.

He wants to ask what’s wrong, but Mary speaks before he gets the chance to, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Animeviewer:
It is one of the best stories I've ever read. This story will have you riding a roller coaster of emotions and nearly dying to know what happens next.You will get very attached to the characters and in my case I relate well with some of their very traumatic or emotional experiences, Just Juliet f...

Sandra Estrada:
I loved every minute of it and I thank my lucky stars that brought me to the story, it's been a whirlwind of emotions, plot twist after plot twist but I never got tired of them. Abby and Kade's story is a hard one to understand but once you're submerged in their story and love, you can't help but...

ernbelle:
When I first started this story I was a little unsettled by all of the information that appears in the prologue, and wasn't sure if I would continue. However, I am very glad I did. The plot was very well thought out and really interesting. There were not any page breaks or markers to acknowledge ...

Prasino45:
Hi! I happen to see your updated chapter on FF.NET!It happened to be about you coming onto Inkitt with this story! I've been a fan for a while! I'm a scqualphie writer myself. I ship them HARD! Love this story! I'm gonna do a reread as you said you changed some things! Glad we both made the switc...

Nadine Willard:
I loved this story so much! I generally can't stand super girly romance stories, but this one was so relatable! I could not stop reading this, I read it straight through!! I wish this was a series, not just a single story 😊

FateFellShort:
I have read this story and have followed the writers on tumblr from the beginning. Its a wonderful story. Beautifully written with a really nice pace, that makes it enjoyable to read more than once. For me, fairy tail has very good characters but what the writers have done is give them more depth...

Jean Tryon:
As a beta, I found this story outstanding!! Plot, grammar, phraseology, etc Rachel gives us it all. She takes the story into the future from where due South ends. She is an exacting and thoughtful author.

Carolyn Hahn-Re:
I really liked this story! The writing was well done, and the plot was suspenseful. I couldn't stop reading chapter after chapter, on the edge of my seat! The characters were well developed, and true to form. Thank you so much for this wonderful read.

Ruby0h:
Overall I thought your story was really good! It drew me in right away and kept me interested as the story progressed. I loved the character of Kayla being inserted into this story, and the way she affected and shaped the life of the original story into something totally new and interesting. I lo...